Latest News – April 11

School District Prepares for Building Change-Ups

The Change-Up. The Reconfiguration. The BIG Switcheroo.

No matter what folks have been calling it, the Lake County School District (LCSD) is preparing for the grade and building reconfiguration. The changes were announced last fall and will be in place by the start of the new school year in August 2014.

Lake County Middle School? Intermediate School? Will this building’s identity crisis be resolved on April 22 at a special meeting with the Board of Education?

While there are a lot logistics involved in this transition, the one subject that seems to be sparking the most conversation – both on and off-line – is the possible renaming of the high school and middle school.

It has been determined by the LCSD Board of Education that Pitts Elementary and West Park Elementary will both retain their names. However, the board has not decided whether they will be retaining or changing the names of the high school and the middle school.

The district convened a naming committee and welcomed public input into the naming conversation. This committee will present its recommendations to the school board at a special meeting during its Tuesday, April 22 work session. This meeting will be held at 7:30 p.m. in the middle school library. The public is welcome.

Construction Update, provided by the Lake County School District:

Construction on the high school project continues to progress on budget. The building will open for the 2014-15 school year with brand new 9th-12th grade (to the east) and 7th-8th grade (to the west) classroom wings. The current north end of the high school will be removed this summer as it was not practical or feasible to remodel it. The central part of the existing high school, including the cafeteria and administration offices, will be remodeled this summer.

Visual rendering of the high school cafeteria remodel. Photo: H+L Architecture.

According to the district’s owner’s representative Consilium Partners, the high school construction project has brought $936,000 to Lake County via local spending by construction employees and the hiring of local subcontractors – data through January 1, 2014. Public tours of the high school construction project take place on the third Tuesday of each month. Pre-registration is required. The next tour with openings available is on May 20. Please call Leslee at 719-486-6800 to sign up.

Staff across the school district are also preparing for new grade configurations in all buildings this fall. This spring teachers are getting ready for the many classroom moves that will be required this summer, including Kindergarten moving to West Park; 3rd and 4th grades moving to the middle school; 7th and 8th grades moving to the high school; and 9th through 12th grades moving out of the north wing and into the new building. In order to provide teachers with sufficient time to prepare for these moves, the district recently announced some changes to the May 2014 calendar:

Pitts, The Center, West Park and the Middle School will all be closed on Friday, May 23rd

Lake County High School will be closed on Friday, May 16th and Friday, May 23rd

These additional days will allow teachers time to pack their classrooms in addition to closing out the school year.

“We firmly believe that the new building configurations are the right thing for students and staff,” said Superintendent Wendy Wyman. “We also understand that calendar changes can be challenging for families, and we greatly appreciate the community’s support and understanding as we undertake the significant logistics associated with the reconfiguration.”